In the last few weeks, I've been getting text messages from my brother, who is finding out what it's like to have to cook for himself (or, for him and our sister Katie) on a regular basis. To call this monumental would not be an overstatement, believe me.
Tonight's revelation was that they intend to make "Mom's cookies" sometime in the near future. Cookies are a treat, though they were certainly a staple when I was growing up - Mom's Cookie Monster cookie jar was usually full. My mother's cookies were world-famous - meaning that our extended family always requested them at holidays, and friends raided the cookie jar whenever they could. Everyone wanted her recipe, and she would smirk a little when revealing that it was just the Toll House recipe, made with the sugar substitute fructose. She also used butter-flavored Crisco, a habit I think developed from that WWII rationing mentality that her mother undoubtedly had in spades (take a look sometime at the housewife cookbooks of the era - shortening is in everything!).
I started making Mom's cookies when I was still in college; I considered it one of those passages to adulthood to be able to make my own chocolate chip cookies. I have altered Mom's method a bit, too. I stopped using fructose in cookies when I couldn't find it in the stores any longer, and opted for various sugar substitutes over time. One thing I can caution is never to use Splenda for baking, it just tastes so much different; I like baking with Truvia. I also always use real butter. I'm more likely to make "cookie cake" (the pan cookie variation on the back of your Toll House chocolate chip bag) and for that I use real sugar like Mom did. For chemical reasons unknown, sugar substitutes don't work as well in the pan cookies.
When Joe sent tonight's text about the cookies, I was tempted to launch into this explanation for him. I did tell him I use a different sugar substitute than Mom did, and he laughed at me and said that was blasphemy. I smiled. He'll figure it out, or he won't. Mom's traditions and habits worked for her at the time she was doing them - not all of them work for us, or should. And we can invoke the same flavor with just a little tweak, maybe even improve on it. Change can be a good thing, I want to tell him. But I do understand. How many bowls of cookie dough did we lick clean, how many times did we sit in the kitchen while she stirred, how many chocolate chips did we poach from the open bags? Making Mom's cookies is like inviting her back into the room.
In the end, there really isn't a substitute for that.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Friday, February 24, 2012
Life, with a newborn
Life with a newborn is a lot like everyone says. Lots of sleepless nights, for instance. But in other ways, life with a newborn is just that: life, with a newborn.
Annalise will be two months old on March 3 (yes, time flies!) and I've spent all of February trying to navigate the waters of "returning" to the world. I work from home, a huge blessing that presents a special set of obstacles. When I'm working, I'm still actively taking care of the baby. She's not at a day care or staying with someone else for a few hours. Often, she's in my lap or propped up in the Boppy next to me on the couch. I'm interrupted mid-sentence to feed her, change her diaper, soothe her from hiccups. My work day gets started when she goes down for an afternoon nap, or it happens at 2am when I'm too wound up and she's too hungry for either of us to sleep. So, what is life, with a newborn? It's being a multi-tasker and jack-of-all-trades.
In some ways, I think moms who leave home to work are a bit wiser than those of us who work from home (as opposed to "stay at home"). My attention is divided the entire day. I'm breastfeeding my daughter in the morning while I read newsclips and listen to talk radio to get an idea of what I might write about that day. I'm editing blog posts and doing site administration while singing "Rubber Duckie" and "Monster in the Mirror."
My mother made a conscious decision to stay at home when I was born. She left the Navy for me. I think my decision to work from home is similar to her decision. Financially, Mom always told me she basically made enough to pay for child care - which meant working was financially detrimental, since it would have added nothing of real value. I'm in a position where I need to be making money, but like Mom, would be making enough outside the home to pay for child care and little else. And I choose this lifestyle because it benefits my daughter the most of my current options - same as Mom.
Some people have given me odd looks when I tell them I'm still involved politically, too. I was back on that horse as soon as I could be. Why, exactly? I have a kid now, surely I don't need to be "distracted" by politics! I have a long-winded version of this in me, but the short version is, whenever I look at Annalise, my commitment to making the world a better place for her is renewed tenfold. Now I have a buy-in with the future. Now it's real.
Life, with a newborn. It's just like it was before, only more so.
Annalise will be two months old on March 3 (yes, time flies!) and I've spent all of February trying to navigate the waters of "returning" to the world. I work from home, a huge blessing that presents a special set of obstacles. When I'm working, I'm still actively taking care of the baby. She's not at a day care or staying with someone else for a few hours. Often, she's in my lap or propped up in the Boppy next to me on the couch. I'm interrupted mid-sentence to feed her, change her diaper, soothe her from hiccups. My work day gets started when she goes down for an afternoon nap, or it happens at 2am when I'm too wound up and she's too hungry for either of us to sleep. So, what is life, with a newborn? It's being a multi-tasker and jack-of-all-trades.
In some ways, I think moms who leave home to work are a bit wiser than those of us who work from home (as opposed to "stay at home"). My attention is divided the entire day. I'm breastfeeding my daughter in the morning while I read newsclips and listen to talk radio to get an idea of what I might write about that day. I'm editing blog posts and doing site administration while singing "Rubber Duckie" and "Monster in the Mirror."
My mother made a conscious decision to stay at home when I was born. She left the Navy for me. I think my decision to work from home is similar to her decision. Financially, Mom always told me she basically made enough to pay for child care - which meant working was financially detrimental, since it would have added nothing of real value. I'm in a position where I need to be making money, but like Mom, would be making enough outside the home to pay for child care and little else. And I choose this lifestyle because it benefits my daughter the most of my current options - same as Mom.
Some people have given me odd looks when I tell them I'm still involved politically, too. I was back on that horse as soon as I could be. Why, exactly? I have a kid now, surely I don't need to be "distracted" by politics! I have a long-winded version of this in me, but the short version is, whenever I look at Annalise, my commitment to making the world a better place for her is renewed tenfold. Now I have a buy-in with the future. Now it's real.
Life, with a newborn. It's just like it was before, only more so.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Annalise Ruth
I have a tiny person sleeping in my lap right now (and here I am, breaking a cardinal rule about "sleeping when she sleeps" - that's a laughable concept, by the way). I would like to introduce you to her.
Our daughter Annalise Ruth was born on January 3, 2012 at 8:52pm, coming in at 7lbs 7oz and 21 inches.
I've gotten a lot of questions about her name. I knew that if we had a girl, I would want a somewhat Scandinavian-sounding name, and something that doesn't pop up on popular name lists. It took a little while, but Randy and I both liked Annalise. The question of a middle name was harder. We had a tentative agreement on one, but at the hospital as we were walking down to Room 3 from the registration desk, we had a mutual change of heart. You see, it was kind of funny to us, room 3 and it being January 3. This was at 2 in the afternoon - neither of us were sure that she would actually arrive on the 3rd, but if she did, well, Babe Ruth wore number 3 for the Yankees. And my mom was a huge Yankees fan. Wouldn't Ruth make a good middle name? Later, once I had an epidural and could carry on a conversation, we made it official.
"Annalise" is a modern spelling for the German/Scandinavian name "Anneliese" and it means "grace" or "graceful light." "Ruth" is Hebrew in origin and means "friend." I'm also particularly fond of the story of Ruth in the Bible.
So far, our baby girl is thriving. She likes to be held, but she's not fond of being swaddled and she pushes hats off her head or squirms out of them if she's lying down. She recognizes Daddy's voice when he comes home in the evening. She seems to like men's voices in general - if there is a man speaking on the radio or television and she's alert, she'll turn her head toward the source of the sound. She likes Christmas music a little better than regular lullabies. Like most babies her age, she likes car rides and being in the stroller will calm her down pretty quickly.
Annalise will be a month old next week. We have some milestones coming with that - first shots, first time spending a few hours with grandma instead of mommy. I am okay with these things, because every milestone we reach is a small victory. Proof that this is really happening, proof that we're doing something right even when everything feels odd and hard and impossible (proof that yes, one day, I will get to sleep in my bed for more than 15 minutes at a stretch). Still, a month. How on earth did that time pass?
Our daughter Annalise Ruth was born on January 3, 2012 at 8:52pm, coming in at 7lbs 7oz and 21 inches.
I've gotten a lot of questions about her name. I knew that if we had a girl, I would want a somewhat Scandinavian-sounding name, and something that doesn't pop up on popular name lists. It took a little while, but Randy and I both liked Annalise. The question of a middle name was harder. We had a tentative agreement on one, but at the hospital as we were walking down to Room 3 from the registration desk, we had a mutual change of heart. You see, it was kind of funny to us, room 3 and it being January 3. This was at 2 in the afternoon - neither of us were sure that she would actually arrive on the 3rd, but if she did, well, Babe Ruth wore number 3 for the Yankees. And my mom was a huge Yankees fan. Wouldn't Ruth make a good middle name? Later, once I had an epidural and could carry on a conversation, we made it official.
"Annalise" is a modern spelling for the German/Scandinavian name "Anneliese" and it means "grace" or "graceful light." "Ruth" is Hebrew in origin and means "friend." I'm also particularly fond of the story of Ruth in the Bible.
So far, our baby girl is thriving. She likes to be held, but she's not fond of being swaddled and she pushes hats off her head or squirms out of them if she's lying down. She recognizes Daddy's voice when he comes home in the evening. She seems to like men's voices in general - if there is a man speaking on the radio or television and she's alert, she'll turn her head toward the source of the sound. She likes Christmas music a little better than regular lullabies. Like most babies her age, she likes car rides and being in the stroller will calm her down pretty quickly.
Annalise will be a month old next week. We have some milestones coming with that - first shots, first time spending a few hours with grandma instead of mommy. I am okay with these things, because every milestone we reach is a small victory. Proof that this is really happening, proof that we're doing something right even when everything feels odd and hard and impossible (proof that yes, one day, I will get to sleep in my bed for more than 15 minutes at a stretch). Still, a month. How on earth did that time pass?
Thursday, December 29, 2011
a quick catching up
I haven't posted here in a few months - life got on a roll again and maintaining more than one (okay, two) blogging spaces wasn't high on my priority list.
Mom is never far from my mind, but she isn't haunting me; there are a lot of things happening here and now, the biggest of course being the baby that is due literally at any time. Mom's been inspiring me a lot - in starting a baby book, I copied a lot of what she did in the one she made for me. I've been making a TON of Mom's famous chocolate chip cookie cake, for various family events and just because it is the very best comfort food in the universe (I suspect greatly that another batch will be made in 2011, come to think of it). And because Christmas was always Mom's holiday - she could do it up like no one else, and always did - she has been with me an awful lot in the last couple of months.
This blog is probably going to take a bit of a turn, if I'm able to keep it up, toward chronicling my little one's early life. We'll see. As usual, I blog about politics at Blue Dot Blues and Empower Texans, and I'm contributing elsewhere from time to time.
Mom is never far from my mind, but she isn't haunting me; there are a lot of things happening here and now, the biggest of course being the baby that is due literally at any time. Mom's been inspiring me a lot - in starting a baby book, I copied a lot of what she did in the one she made for me. I've been making a TON of Mom's famous chocolate chip cookie cake, for various family events and just because it is the very best comfort food in the universe (I suspect greatly that another batch will be made in 2011, come to think of it). And because Christmas was always Mom's holiday - she could do it up like no one else, and always did - she has been with me an awful lot in the last couple of months.
This blog is probably going to take a bit of a turn, if I'm able to keep it up, toward chronicling my little one's early life. We'll see. As usual, I blog about politics at Blue Dot Blues and Empower Texans, and I'm contributing elsewhere from time to time.
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